by Joanna M. Arcatto

Sake for beginners

Enjoying the night life in Shinjuku, the office district of Tokyo, that is also famous of its night life we stepped into a small restaurant, to enjoy sake served traditional way. Sake, is the traditional Japanese rice wine. Unlike typical wine, sake is produced in the brewing process (and not by fermentation). Sake may be drunk either cold or hot (warm).

We decided to try sake served cold. The glasses were first put into small boxes. Then sake was richly poured into glasses so it overran the glass edge. First we were supposed to drink that what was inside the glass, then we drank the sake that overran either directly from the box or after pouring it back into the glass.

Of other Japanese alcoholic beverages we tried in Japan were the Japanese beers (most popular), shochu (a kind of vodka made of rice), umeshu (plum wine) and Japanese whiskey.